Sun Yat-sen, the National Father of China, was born an ordinary peasant near Guangzhou in 1866. He received the Western style education in an Anglican boys' school in Honolulu, Hawaii, from 1879 to 1883. In the early 1890s he struck out for the British Colony of Hong Kong to pursue his study of medicine at Hong Kong University.

     As an idealistic young man, Sun was quick to notice that the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911 AD) was becoming evermore corrupt and that China was entering a critical situation. During his years as a doctor he traveled widely in the region and met other like-minded young men and dissident leaders. They began to think of ways to create change in China, but his first attempts at enacting reforms met with failure. Sun organized a revolutionary uprising in Canton in 1895 and was exiled for 16 years as a result.

During Sun's travels abroad he was deeply impressed with the writings of Karl Marx and Henry George. He soon united with other revolutionary groups and formed a new organization in Tokyo under the name of Tong Meng Hui (Revolutionary League). It was during this time that his most famous political theory came into being, the "Three People's Principles" (nationalism, democracy, and the people's livelihood). Although he encountered numerous armed struggles with the Qing Government and faced many setbacks, he never gave up. He carried on his optimistic attitude and upheld his belief in reforming China.

    Political unrest continued and on October 10, 1911, rebels in Wuchang (a city in central China) seized control of the local Qing government and a provisional government was set up. Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary League was also involved in that important uprising and it helped him to take a step further toward his goal of revolutionizing China. On New Year's Day 1912, Sun assumed the presidency of the newly founded non-dynastic Republic of China marking a new era in Chinese history. After a few months' time, Sun resigned from the presidency to avoid a civil war. He was forced to the decision by the man who controlled the Qing army, Yuan Shi-kai. Yuan would only offer his support to the new Republic in exchange for the presidency. However, soon after Yuan was granted the presidency he betrayed the revolution and attempted to restore monarchism.

    Sun launched an unsuccessful "Second Revolution" in 1913 to stop Yuan. Afterward, he again took asylum in Japan where he formed the Chinese Revolutionary Party (CRP). In 1917, Sun returned to China and set up a military government with himself as the leader. Two years later, he reformed the CRP into the Kuomintang (KMT) and was again elected as the President. In 1924, with the assistance of the USSR, Sun agreed to establish cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party and the KMT.

    In March, 1925, Sun Yat-sen died of liver cancer in Beijing. Without his leadership the delicate bond between the Communists and the KMT weakened and eventually split. In accordance with his will, Sun was buried in Nanjing in a mausoleum with three arched gates to represent his three principles.